Broken Glass
by NikolitaNiko
Summary: Re-uploaded to fix errors from original upload. This is a short fic based on the Castle 4x01 promo trailer released recently. Implied character death. Sorry for the lack of breaks, this site won't make my edits.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Castle or any of its characters.

**Notes:** This is my first fic in a very long time, the first one I've felt comfortable posting publicly, so please bear with me. If you leave feedback/constructive criticism, I just ask that you be gentle!

As you can probably tell, this is based on the 4x01 sneak peek trailer released by ABC recently.

Minor edits and disclaimer added 7/28.

This fic is complete, I'm not planning on writing anything else for it. Sorry!

Also, my apologies to those who reviewed this before I deleted it. wasn't making the edits to my story, so I fixed the original document and re-uploaded it. Please feel free to re-review if you'd like.

To Richard Alexander Rogers, nothing else existed - nothing except the crowded stretcher rushing down the hallway in front of him. The prone figure lying deathly still on the gurney was overshadowed by the frantic woman standing on the side rails, leaning over the patient as she desperately performed CPR with every fibre of her being. Emergency personnel flanked both sides of the stretcher as they ran down the hallway towards destinations yet unknown.

Minutes earlier in the back of the ambulance, her heart had stopped. In the blink of an eye, Detective Kate Beckett went from being unconscious to being unresponsive as her vitals ceased to exist. The droning wail of her heart monitor as she flatlined had made Rick want to step in and intervene, do anything he could to help her; this time he was helpless. Fear froze the blood in his veins as he watched Lanie and the ambulance attendants spring into action, taking the necessary steps to prevent her life from slipping away. For his part, Rick could only sit and stare. The thought of losing her, losing Kate, was enough to stop him cold.

Their ambulance had arrived at the hospital moments later, and the emergency personnel unloaded Kate quickly with Lanie hot on their tracks. As they rolled Kate's gurney up to the entrance of the emergency wing, Lanie had climbed onto the gurney's side rails and continued performing CPR on Kate. Rick snapped to attention as the medical team passed through the automatic doors, and he ran behind Kate's stretcher as they rolled deeper into the hospital. Rick could faintly hear Lanie's pleas for Kate to wake up, to live, but all he could think about was Kate. Kate being shot during Montgomery's funeral. Kate shedding a single tear as he held her gently on the ground. Kate's ghost of a smile as he told her he loved her. He wondered if he would ever get the chance to tell her again.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a doctor in scrubs approached the gurney and ran alongside with the rest of the crew. Through the haze in his mind, he heard something about Kate's vitals having stopped and their plans to rush her to the trauma team on standby in an emergency room. Lanie's attempts at CPR were failing. How long had it been since her heart had stopped beating, since her lungs had stopped drawing in air?

"_This is my friend, do you understand me? She is my friend!"_

"_Then let us save her life."_

Rick watched Lanie struggle internally with the doctor's words. Within moments, love and loyalty for her friend won out to her trust in the medical staff, and the medical examiner stepped off the stretcher as it barrelled down the hospital hallway.

Rick slowed as he approached Lanie, and together they watched Kate's gurney shrink smaller and smaller as it rushed away from them. Four guardian angels protected Kate, doing everything they could to bring her back, but the knowledge that they could do nothing more for their friend was heartbreaking. Seeing the anguish on Lanie's face, Rick wanted to put a hand on her back and tell her Kate was going to be ok, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Kate's ashen face swam before his eyes, and it was all he could do to put one foot in front of the other as he and Lanie walked back towards the waiting room. Their friends and family were waiting for them.

He wished everyone would go home, or at the very least just leave him alone. Between his family, the crew from the 12th and Kate's father, their waiting room was rather crowded. He was unable to sit still and had spent the last few hours pacing in the same space. Every once in awhile Alexis or his mother would approach him and try to get him to sit down, or get something to eat, but he just shook them off and continued to pace. He tried not to think about what would happen if Kate didn't make it. What his life would be like without her in it. The very thought made him want to drop to his knees. He didn't want to live his life without Kate Beckett in it.

A nurse had been by awhile earlier to give their group an update on Kate's surgery; the last they'd heard was that it was still touch and go. She'd lost a lot of blood and had no vitals for several minutes, and for some reason it was taking longer than they expected to finish the surgery. The details they'd been given were sketchy, and Rick was desperately trying not to rush to negative conclusions. In the meantime, their crew was huddled in smaller circles around the waiting room – Lanie was standing with Ryan and Esposito against the wall a little ways down from where Rick was pacing, and Alexis was sitting with Martha and Kate's father on some chairs in the corner.

The sound of approaching footsteps snapped Rick out of his detached state of mind. He examined the nurse for signs as she walked down the hallway towards their waiting room – signs that Kate was going to pull through the surgery, live and recover. A smile? Eye contact? Anything to give them –him- hope that she was going to be ok.

The rest of their group had heard the nurse too. Lanie and the boys left their positions by the wall, as did Martha, Alexis and Jim with their chairs. Together they huddled in a semi-circle in the middle of the waiting room.

"Is the family of Kate Beckett here?"

"I am," said Jim as he stepped forward. "Please, do you have any news about my Kate?"

Rick held his breath. He waited for the nurse to nod and smile, to say that Kate would be ok. Waited for her to explain why the surgery had taken so long. Why she'd lost so much blood. How long it would take for her to recover enough to have visitors in her room. He'd bring her flowers and sit by her bed, read to her from his draft of _Heat Rises_-

Then the nurse said the words which would change their lives forever, and Rick's world shattered into a million little pieces.


End file.
